unto us." When they came to the little village they found a babe lying in the manger of a stable attached to the overcrowded inn.

Who is this little child? What is known of his parentage and why is he introduced to the world in this unique and marvelous way?

It is important that we should have a definite answer to these questions if we are to understand and rightly interpret his life. Seeking these answers, one might be willing to go to Bethlehem in order to talk with the shepherds and see what they saw, but this is impossible, for all this came to pass more than nineteen hundred years ago. One might go to the little white town five miles from Jerusalem, he might visit the church of the Nativity as it stands above the orchards and vineyards surrounding the village; he might look into a cave that is called the Cave of the Nativity, but all this would do very little in the way of helping him to know the profound meaning of the angel's message. Nor would it avail much if one could go back nineteen hundred years and see just what the shepherds saw with the outward eye. They saw only a little child wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Many of those who dwelt in Bethlehem at the time Jesus was born either knew nothing of the event or thought of it with indifference.

The principal source of information for determining the identity of this child is a book that Christians call the Bible, comprising the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. The Old Testament, comprising thirty-nine books is identical with the sacred writings of the Hebrew nation that were in existence at the time this child was born. These sacred writings, after giving an account of the creation of the parents of mankind, of their living in Eden in holy and happy communion and covenant re

lations with their Creator, go on to tell a marvelous story of their rebellion against God and of their expulsion from Eden. As these parents of mankind stood outside the barred gates of the earthly paradise, they had from their Creator a promise that the seed of the woman should destroy the tempter who led them in rebellion against God. How far they understood the profound meaning of that promise, no one can tell. Of the times and the seasons, of the long years of sin and suffering, of the clearer and more complete revelation that must precede and prepare the way for its fulfillment, they knew nothing, but they were saved by hope. The most careful students of these sacred scriptures believe that these promises had their fulfillment in the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem.

These sacred writings of the Hebrews, after giving a brief sketch of the descendants of the parents of mankind during many centuries, devote many pages to an account of the life of Abraham, the fountain head of Hebrew history. This man was called of God to go forth from Ur of the Chaldees across the great river Euphrates, and journey through the land now called Palestine that was to him a land of promise. According to these Hebrew scriptures God had promised Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. He seemed to have no knowledge of the time that must intervene before the promise should be fulfilled, but in the light of the promise given to him he looked down through the ages, saw Christ's day and rejoiced in it. He could not discern the externals, as the Judean shepherds did when they saw the infant Saviour lying in a manger, but he did see the promised seed in whom all nations should find a blessing. The child born at Bethlehem is the promised seed of Abraham.

These Hebrew scriptures give a brief history of the descendants of Abraham, telling of their journey through the Land of Palestine unto the third generation when they go down into Egypt and afterwards become slaves to the Egyptians. After speaking of their tears and cries on account of Egyptian oppression they tell the story of deliverance by one of their own nation named Moses, who was saved from death by an Egyptian princess, educated in the palace, chose afflictions with the Hebrew slaves. rather than the honours of the Egyptians; became a shepherd in the wilderness, talked with God at Horeb, and became the deliverer of his people. This Moses said to his people, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, like unto me; unto him shall ye hearken." This promise was cherished by the nation, and students of these scriptures find its fulfillment in the birth of Christ.

The students of these Hebrew scriptures, from the time of Moses, find in them constant reference to this promised seed of Abraham, and each succeeding reference seems to become more definite. A prophet who loves the wages of unrighteousness claims that he is controlled by the divine Spirit as he says, when he refuses to curse Israel,

"I see him, but not now,

I behold him, but not nigh,

There shall come forth a star out of Jacob
And a scepter shall arise out of Israel."

In this prophecy one may see, not only David, the king of Israel, but David's greater Son,-the Babe of Bethlehem. Again a promise is given to David that his seed should sit on his throne forever, and an intimation is given that the fruit of David's body and the son of David

should be more than the son of David, because the prophecy reads:

"I will tell the decree,

The Lord said unto me, thou art my son,
This day have I begotten thee."

Isaiah, the great evangelistic prophet of these Old Testament Scriptures, says, "There shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him." This promise is repeated in the prophecy of Jeremiah, as he writes, "Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." Then Isaiah writes, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel": and, again this great prophet seems to be carried forward, so as to be living amid the scenes of his prophetic vision, and he writes, "Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to establish it."

After Isaiah comes the prophet Daniel who, in the judgment of many Biblical scholars, fixes the time, as he says, "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto the Christ, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks." Then there is the prophet Micah telling the place, as he says, "Thou Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth

unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

In the light of these and many other Old Testament Scriptures we come to Bethlehem, and see the virginborn Son of God, the promised Saviour. Here is the fulfillment of the promises. Here is the one point to which the rays of spiritual light from the promises, prophecies and types of the Old Testament converge. Here is Israel's consolation and the hope of a lost world, the Babe of Bethlehem.

The second great source of information concerning this child is the New Testament. Three New Testament writers, Matthew, Luke and John, tell of this child, but each in his own way and from his own view point. They introduce their sketches of the life of Jesus Christ by telling either of his parentage, or of his pre-existence. Matthew and Luke give extended genealogies, Matthew going backward to Abraham, and Luke going backward to the parents of mankind. John tells of the pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God before the creation of the world.

It is not necessary to turn aside from the narrative and enter into a discussion as to how the genealogies of Luke and Matthew can be mutually reconciled. They are independent records, and our not being able to harmonize them at all points only indicates lack of knowledge of all the times and all the circumstances. It may be said, however, that Luke tells of the birth of Christ from the viewpoint of Mary, the virgin mother, that Matthew tells of the same event as it was revealed to Joseph the husband of Mary, and John speaks of it as the heavenly Father sees it.

First of all the evangelist John gives to this little child an absolutely unique place amongst the children of men